I’m over sacrifice. In fiction, that is. I’m not quite as excited as I used to be about climaxes where Mr. Spock gasps out his last words on the other side of the radioactivity-shielding glass or Harry Potter whips off his Invisibility Cloak in the middle of a Death Eater…
Books YA/MG fiction The Girl of Fire and Thorns (***** – loved) Leverage (***** – loved) Adult fiction Whispers Under Ground (***** – loved) The Last Policeman: A Novel (**** – liked) Redshirts (*** – enjoyed) The Surgeon (**** – liked) Adult non-fiction Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy…
(But first… happy birthday, Grace! Yaaaaaay!) Almost every how-to writing book you can find advises would-be writers to read extensively. This is sound advice. Reading a lot of what you want to write helps you to understand it viscerally the same way doing lots of math problems is a different…
(Pneumonia update: still coughin’ :P) You may recall that earlier this year, I posted a blog entry on three season premieres. Here’s the follow-up as we hit the holiday break. Slight spoilers, but everything is really vague. Dexter (season 7) Status: stopped watching at 7×06
Books YA/MG fiction The Opposite of Hallelujah (***** – loved) Adult fiction Zoo City (***** – loved) Beauty and the Werewolf (*** – enjoyed) Broken Harbour (***** – loved) Adult non-fiction Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (*** – enjoyed) Movies Wreck-It Ralph (**** – liked) In…
Books YA/MG fiction Blood Red Road (***** – loved) Where Things Come Back (***** – loved) Insurgent (**** – liked) The Clockwork Three (*** – enjoyed) Graphic novels Friends With Boys (**** – liked) Adult fiction Deadlocked (*** – enjoyed) Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (**** – liked) Uncle…
… I’m thinking about fiction, and you will be, too. (WARNING: due to the nature of this discussion, this blog entry will contain swear words and references to works that depict graphic violence. No graphic violence in the blog itself, though.) The first novel manuscript I ever wrote was called Just…
The weird thing is, normally I’m a subtitle kind of gal. I don’t like listening to TV at high volumes. And some shows, like The Wire, just make a whole lot more sense when I can see names spelled out or hear what mumblers are saying in the background. In fact,…
(But first, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and happy birthday, Banana Boy! (Hey, you don’t like your real name used on the Internet, so be grateful I didn’t pick the more embarrassing of your childhood nicknames…))
Books YA/MG fiction The Sixty-Eight Rooms ( *** – enjoyed) Adult fiction Sandman Slim: A Novel (**** – liked) Hide Me Among the Graves (**** – liked) Adult non-fiction Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks & the Hidden Powers of the Mind (**** – liked) Feynman’s Rainbow ( **** –…